| Published on 16-07-2008 In General |
| Viewed 1341 times |
| Arushi's dad, sad; but what about all the other cases of police savagery? |
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Written by
N.D.Sharma |
Noida's Arushi murder case has once again underlined the threat the police has become to the civilised society in this country. Dr Rajesh Talwar could escape the police attempt to send him to the gallows or a life in prison for his daughter's murder, which the CBI now says he never committed, because he belonged to the high class society and the crime took place in a semi-metropolis on the fringe of the national capital and had thus attracted the (rather excessive) interest of the media, both print and electronic.
Instances of the police savagery elsewhere, particularly in the countryside, either go unnoticed or are reported casually by a section of media once or twice and then the victims of the police highhandedness are left to the mercy of Gods. Unfortunately, the police officers involved enjoy full protection from those in power, irrespective of their political affiliation. If Dr. Talwar was charged with the murder of his daughter Arushi whose body was discovered at their residence, the police had arrested an OBC couple in Hoshangabad district and booked them for the murder of their son who was not even dead.
This followed the discovery of the body of a child near the railway track. In spite of the failure of the police to get it identified, the police arrested Ramesh Yadav and Neelu Yadav for the "murder" of their son Gabbar, who had been missing for some time. The police made the Yadav couple confess that they had killed their son and thrown the body near the railway track. When the boy returned a couple of months later, the police remained unfazed and refused to accept that Gabbar was the son of Ramesh and Neelu or they were the parents of Gabbar. What Ramesh and Neelu or Gabbar or the residents of the locality said in this regard did not mean anything to the police. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan behaved, as any other chief minister would have done: no concern. The hapless parents were left to prove from the jail that Gabbar was their own son for whose "murder' they had been put in jail.
Prem Raj Kotaria, the Kondagaon-based correspondent of "Deshbandhu", published from Raipur and other places, was arrested under the infamous TADA for allegedly supplying explosives to the naxalites in Bastar district (then part of Madhya Pradesh). The Congress leaders including then PCC president Digvijay Singh, Motilal Vora and Shyama Charan Shukla vehemently protested against Kotaria's arrest. Vora had particularly claimed that he had personally known Kotaria for long and could vouchsafe for his integrity. It made no impact on the BJP government of Sunderlal Patwa. After the Patwa government was dismissed by the Governor in the wake of the post-Babri demolition riots and the Congress came to power, the public prosecutor made a submission before the Bastar court that Prem Raj Kotaria was booked under TADA by Superintendent of Police Sudarshan Kumar just to please chief minister Sunderlal Patwa who did not like Kotaria's reports exposing corruption in the police assigned to tackle the naxalite menace.
Sudarshan Kumar, who could have been tried for falsely implicating an innocent person in criminal cases, became one of the most favourite IPS officers of Digvijay Singh. Not that he had become a changed person, showing some respect for human considerations! As Sagar district SP, he was accused of indulging in abominable activities for which he was reprimanded by the Assembly more than once. Digvijay Singh was always on his feet to defend him and save him from punishment. Sudarshan Kumar recently retired honourably as additional director general of police. The BJP leaders, who were after his blood during the Digvijay Singh regime, found him a very virtuous officer after they formed the government.
The Shajapur story is a glaring example of the police menace. A Dalit youth was framed by the police for the brutal murder of two Brahmin girls. He was awarded death sentence by the Sessions Court and it was changed to imprisonment for life by the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The boy, who was not even present in the town on the day of the crime as it turned out later, was saved by the Supreme Court.
The apex court's observations, while acquitting the youth, included: fingerprints from the scene of crime were taken by finger print officer P.C.Yadav; fingerprints of Ashish Batham (the Dalit youth) were taken by the investigation officer; neither any report on fingerprints was submitted nor P.C.Yadav was examined; Ashish Batham was made to take lie detector test but the report was not submitted in the court; Ashish Batham had stated that he was with his sister at Dahod in Gujarat on the day of the occurrence; the prosecution did not produce any evidence to substantiate its claim that he was not there; a CID investigation was conducted in the murder of the two sisters; neither the report of the investigation was submitted nor the officers who had conducted the investigation were examined. The Supreme Court then gave detailed reasons why the evidence of those who had "seen" Ashish around the victims' house at the time of the murder or heard the cries from inside the house could not be relied upon. The youth, his father feels, may not be able to recover all his life from the psychic trauma he suffered in jail as the murder-convict.
There are perhaps more instances of the police working like a gang of thugs than as a force to help the citizens live an orderly life. Only the more heinous of their actions somehow come to light. The misery of a poor Balaghat girl of 18 years throws an interesting light on the modus operandi of this uniformed gang. She was picked up from her house by the police and detained in the police station. The police said she was raped by two persons. The girl denied it. An application was moved by her father in the Chief Judicial Magistrate' court seeking the release of his daughter from police custody. In reply to the court's notice, the police did not produce the girl but moved an application saying that her father was a beggar and she did not want to live with him and that on her own request, she had been sent to a relation of hers in Chattisgarh.
She somehow managed to flee from the house of her "relation" in Durg and wrote to the Director-General Police narrating how the police had all these days detained her and then taken her in police custody to put her under the charge of an unknown woman in Durg.
The matter was taken to the High Court in Jabalpur. Justice Arun Mishra exposed the lies of the police, describing an "inquiry report" of an Inspector- General of Police level officer as totally incorrect. The judge observed: "police cannot be allowed to act in such reckless manner. Petitioner is a young girl of 18-19 years, a permanent scar has been caused on her life by illegally detaining her, her dreams have been nipped in the bud, the conduct of the police is most reprehensible, oppressive and distinction has been lost into disciplined force in uniform and whether it is undisciplined criminal force in uniform (Emphasis added)."
Justice Mishra ordered the government to pay Rs one lakh to the girl as compensation. Did the government pay? Nope, it went in an appeal and that was the end of the matter for the hapless girl, for all practical purposes. |
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